01 March 2012

Free to Enter: £1,500 Jane Martin Poetry Prize 2012 (UK)

Post date: 01 March 2012

Deadline: 16 March 2012

Girton College is delighted to invite entries for the 2012 Jane Martin Poetry Prize. Now in its second year, the prize is a key part of the College's support for poetry and will be of interest to all those serious about literary excellence.

The competition will be judged by experts drawn from across the literary world and academia. We are thrilled that this year the panel will include Bernard O'Donoghue and Gwyneth Lewis.

Building on the success of 2011, the 2012 winner will receive not just a cash prize of £1,500, but the opportunity to give a reading at a high-profile poetry event at which the prize will be awarded.

THE PANEL

The 201 2 Jane Martin Poetry Prize will be judged by an eminent panel, led by:

Bernard O'Donoghue is an Emeritus Fellow ofWadham College, Oxford. He has published six volumes of poems ofwhich the most recent is Farmers Cross (Faber 201 1 ). He has won the Whitbread Poetry Award and in 2009 was the recipient of a Cholmondeley Award. He has written books on Seamus Heaney and on medieval love-poetry; in 2006 he published a verse translation of SirGawain and the Green Knight.

Gwyneth Lewis was appointed Wales's first National Poet in 2005. She has published nine books of poetry in Welsh and English, two books of non-fiction – Sunbathing in the Rain and Two in a Boat, and a novella The Meat Tree. She wrote the six-foot high words on the front of the Wales Millennium Centre.

The Prize is named in memory of Jane Martin. Jane studied Classics at Girton, graduating in 1981 . She retained an affection for the College and felt strong bonds with those who had taught and supported her. Jane had always taken great pleasure in writing. On her passing, her father chose to endow a national prize based at Girton for outstanding poetry, to be named after her.

1 . Entrants must be resident in the UK and be at least 1 8 years of age on 1 0October 2011.

2. Valid entries will be written in English and consist of a maximum of four poems of no more than four sides of A4 in (total) length. Poems should not previously have been published.

3. There is no fee for submissions but entries are limited to four poems per poet per year, submitted as one entry.

4. The judges may, at their discretion, request further samples ofwork from short-listed candidates.

5. The first prize for the winning poet will be £1 500, though the panel reserves the right to distribute this.

6. Entries will be judged anonymously. At time of submission, entrants must therefore include their name, address, phone number and email address for correspondence on a piece of paper separate to the poems.

7. We regret that copies of poems cannot be returned.

8. The prize will open on 10 October 2011 and close at noon on 1 6th March 2012. The winner will be notified by 14th May.

9. Girton College may include work from the winning entry in its Annual Review and other college publications/media.